National Cancer Institute awards UNC-CH $5 million for unique prostate canc...( Others involved include Drs. Frank S. F...),Health

Others involved include Drs. Frank S. French, professor of pediatrics and director of the Laboratories for Reproductive Biology; Gary Smith, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine; Elizabeth M. Wilson, professor of pediatrics and biochemistry; Sharon Presnell, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine; Desok Kim, research associate at the Lineberger Center and Christopher W. Gregory, postdoctoral fellow in pediatrics and the Laboratories for Reproductive Biology.

The award will fund three projects and a core laboratory for tissue storage, staining and analysis.

Led by Mohler, researchers in the first project will investigate the role of androgen receptor - the regulatory protein on which the androgens act -- on the ability of the cancer eventually to grow even in the absence of androgens.

"A particular focus will be on how this process is different in Caucasians and African-Americans, who also are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer, even after accounting for possible differences in health care," he said. "The only thing we know about African-Americans that could explain these differences is that their serum testosterone is higher than in Caucasians by a small but probably meaningful amount."

On a molecular level, his group will explore differences in androgen levels and androgen receptors between the races, he said. Twelve North Carolinians with prostate cancer, including both blacks and whites, agreed to have their prostate glands biopsied before removal of androgens and regularly every few months until their cancers return.

"This is providing an invaluable set of specimens to follow what happens in individual patients as their cancers recur," Mohler said.

In the second project, French, Wilson and Gregory will employ a unique tumor model known as CWR-22. It consists of human prostate cancer growing in immune-deficient mice.

"If you remove the sour
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Contact: David Williamson
David_Williamson@unc.edu
919-962-8596
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
6-Oct-1999

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